At least 1,000 more staff nurses are urgently needed in Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) to cater to rising number of patients, but the provincial health department is yet to devise any plan to meet the shortage of nurses in the hospital, sources at CHK told PPI news agency.
The sources said that the Sindh’s largest government-run tertiary-care hospital was facing acute shortage of nurses, and nursing care of patients was adversely affected in the healthcare. They said as per law of Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) and International Council of Nurses (ICN), one staff nurse was needed to attend 10 patients in maximum at same time; however, in operation theater and intensive care unit two nurses must be assigned per patient, while in casualty one nurses is needed for two patients, and in urology and pead departments one nurse must attend two patients, but in Pakistan, particularly Sindh, these mandatory laws were not being implemented in any government hospital.
This adverse situation is being seen in nursing care sector in the CHK as at least 1,000 more nurses were needed in this 1900-bed hospital but only 406 nurses were available in the institution.
The sources said that 305 head nurses were required for the hospital but currently only 40 head nurses were performing their duties in the hospital. The further said the CHK urgently needed at least four nursing superintendents but there was only one nursing superintendent in the institution. They said a significant number of nurses had retired from their posts in last few years, while good number of nurses was on deputation and some others had resigned from their jobs to enjoy lucrative private sector employment opportunities.
Due to unavailability of the required number of nurses, the performance of nurses on duty in various departments badly affected due to heavy work load, they added. The authorities concerned are not paying heeds towards this issue and many nurses are performing their duties under extreme pressure and extra burden of work leads them towards different psychological or behavioural issues.
They informed that many new wards had been established in the CHK in recent past like Medical ICU, CCU, Peads ICU, Cardio Surgery, Burns wards, but the number of staff nurses was not increased as per the demand which had created serious crisis in the hospital regarding nursing care. They said as per law of Pakistan Nursing Council one staff nurse is enough to attend 10 patients, but due to shortage of staff, a nurse has to cover 25 to 30 patients in the CHK.
The major factor behind resignation of nurses from the public hospital is establishment of private hospitals in big cities and rising demands of nurses in the foreign countries. Chief Nursing Superintendent, Civil Hospital Karachi, Rubina John, when contacted, said the medical superintendent had already sent a letter to the provincial authorities to fill the shortage of nurses in the hospital. She said a good number of nurses had already been transferred from the hospital to other healthcare centers, which is also a key factor behind shortage of nurses.
She said shortage of nurses had adversely affected the standard of nursing care and increased burden on staff affecting the behaviour of nurses towards the patients. She said currently 272 nurses are available in the hospital; out of them 27 were sent on deputation to other hospitals and the management of patients has become much very difficult.
